Chrisna Gouws

I obtained my PhD degree in Biochemistry from the North-West University with a thesis titled “Tyrosinemia type I as a model for studying epigenetic events in the aetiology of metabolic disease associated hepatocarcinoma” in 2012.
I wanted to broaden my field of knowledge and scope of research experience, therefore I commenced with a postdoctoral fellowship in the field of Pharmaceutics in the Centre of Excellence for Pharmaceutical Sciences (PharmaCen) where my objectives were to establish mammalian cell lines for in vitro investigations on drug absorption and biotransformation.
I received the NRF research career advancement fellowship program award in 2014, which enabled me to establish a functional 3D spheroid cell culture system as a model for phytomedicine-drug interaction and toxicity studies. The aim of this project is to determine whether the 3D cell culture model is more representative of the in vivo state than the traditional 2D culture models for the aforementioned applications.
My current research activities focus on developing new models for
applications in drug research, including traditional medicinal remedies and plant materials and their possible interaction with conventional medicines.
I also obtained my Y-rating from the NRF.